When I was a young corporate stooge, I always wore a dark three-piece suit with a flashy necktie. Now that I’m older and wiser, I wonder what took me so long to burn all my neckties. The necktie dates back to 1660 when a crack military regiment from Croatia visited France. They had recently defeated Turkey and were presented to King Louis XIV in Paris where they were honored for their glorious victory...

Dogs are extremely social animals whose psychological welfare is dependent on an association with other dogs in a pack while following the guidance of the pack leader. Domestic dogs rely on a human master as a surrogate pack leader. Properly trained, a man can be dog's best friend...

Every now and then something happens in a person’s life that becomes a turning point. When I was in the second grade, my family lived on the edge of a small town in Wisconsin. There was only one other kid my age in the area. His name was James and he was extremely intelligent, a true genius. His father was a surgeon and his mother was a southern aristocrat. They lived in a palace compared to my family’s digs...

The top ten ways to live longer, according to Forbes.com, are as follows: 1) Don't oversleep – A study in the ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY reported that people who sleep between 6 and 7 hours per night live the longest. BB -- Personally, I sleep about 10 hours per night. That way, I only need to take two naps during the day, plus I spend so much time in bed that I'm not as likely to be run over by a truck...

In 1970, a U.S. Athena missile was fired from a location in Utah, scheduled to land in the White Sands Missile Base in New Mexico. However, it went about 900 miles off course, without apparent explanation, and crashed in the Sonora Desert in Mexico, over a hundred miles south of the Big Bend area in Texas...

Recently, there have been several dozen dragonflies randomly circling individually in my backyard, in and around my pond. Dragonflies hunt in flight and eat a wide variety of insects, including mosquitoes. They are welcome to stop by anytime and hang out at my place...

Life is a journey without a map. You come to a fork in the road of life and choose a direction. When things that once shocked you begin to amuse you, you've crossed the first barrier of true wisdom. Every time I reach a new age in life, I spend a long day dwelling on my painful past, blessing the present and ignoring the future. Then I wake up the next day and start all over again...

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the previous one and wiser than the next one. They revolt against the status quo and seek new solutions to age-old conundrums. Every generation needs a new revolution. William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their 1997 book titled THE FOURTH TURNING, theorize that society has a collective personality that changes on a regular cyclical basis...

My father passed away in December of 2011 at age 92 and my mother passed away in June of 2015 at age 97 -- young at heart, too ornery to die. Originally from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, we moved to Kansas City when I was in 4th grade and moved to Minneapolis after I finished 5th grade. When my father retired sometime in the 1980s, my parents moved to Cherokee Village, Arkansas, where they enjoyed their golden years...

The search for the ideal place to live has been a big part of my life. I prefer a quiet rural area far from neighbors with a hilly terrain, affordable housing, moderate weather and earthy women. I've lived in scores of places in 12 states now and have yet to find heaven on earth, but I keep getting closer...

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy perpetrated a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, compelling the USA to enter into the horrific global conflict called World War II. Many Hollywood movie stars were involved in military action during WWII...

Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa, on May 16, 1907. At age four, his family moved to Los Angeles. He was a gifted athlete who lost his football scholarship at USC due to a body surfing accident. Soon, he found work in small bit parts at local film studios, where he eventually changed his name to John Wayne...

In 1964, during the height of the Cold War between the USA and Russia, Stanley Kubrick produced, co-wrote and directed the film classic, DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. In the opening scenes, General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) was concerned about an epiphany he had experienced during a sexual encounter regarding protecting his "purity of essence" and thereby became a bit paranoid about the fluoridation of drinking water...

In 1980, when I was married and living in Los Angeles, my wife and I took a trip to Club Med in Playa Blanca, Mexico. We boarded a 707 passenger jet, chartered by a travel agency, on a Friday night bound for Manzanillo. To my surprise, the plane landed in La Paz on the Baja Peninsula where each passenger was given a card by the stewardess and told to fill it out. ...

Every state in America has a state motto. They tend to be inspirational catchwords, brief yet powerful, no doubt meant to inspire the populace to greatness. The mottos are heavy on truth, justice and the American way – much like Superman without the blue tights, red cape and the need to masquerade as a mild-mannered reporter...

QUESTION: What do the following three lists have in common? LIST #1 – England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Jerusalem, Damascus, London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Dallas, Houston, Hollywood, Delaware, Kentucky, Kansas, Washington, Northern Ohio...

February 14 is Valentine's Day. According to legend, Valentine was a Roman priest during the third century. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he decreed that young men were forbidden to get married. However, Valentine defied the ruling and continued to perform marriages of young couples in secret...

A synchronicity is a meaningful coincidence of events that are not connected, often involving a metaphysical overtone. It's a psychically conditioned relativity of time and space. An Internet website recently had an interesting list of amazing coincidences. However, they seem more like synchronicities to me -- like a shot of destiny to wake up the soul...

When I was about five years old, I was excited to learn that Santa Claus was going to appear at my house early on Christmas Eve to personally hand Christmas gifts to my little brother and me. My parents explained that Santa was doing this as a special treat for us since we didn't have a chimney...

The winter solstice is upon us. Time to be with friends and family, to eat, drink and be merry, to give thanks for another joyous year on Planet Earth, and to watch a lot of football...